Panzers at the Sinsheim Technical Museum

This is a photo tour of the portion of the Technical Museum in Sinsheim that contains German WWII armor and ground weapons.

This museum is billed at as the largest of its kind in Europe, with over 50,000 square meters of technical exhibits, including not one but two supersonic passenger aircraft (Concorde and Tupolev) and inummerable other aircraft from WWI bi/tri-planes to Messerschmitts to Junkers to modern USA F-series. They have tanks, a gazillion cars (Bugatti, Ferrari, Maybach, Mercedes, etc), fire engines, and a large number of train engines; there are anti-aircraft weapons, Nazi submachine guns, PAKs, and lots of armor of all sorts: US tanks, Russian tanks, post-war German tanks including the Leopard. Dozens of German WWII uniforms. There are original 1940s first issue Volkswagens, including the classic "People's car" as well as amphibious vehicles.

This gearhead heaven smells of oil, rubber, and grease, and is open 365 days a year for you to get your machine on.

The presentation of this museum is unique, with similar weapons side-by side. For example, the 150mm howitzer sits between a Panzer IV and the Self-propelled Hummel Gun, which is the same 150mm howitzer on the Panzer IV chassis. Then, overhead, for something completely different, they have aircraft (the real thing, not models) strung from the ceiling and swoping down over the other displays. It really is something to see. When some of the planes are large Junkers Ju88s and Ju55s and Messerschmitts, you get the idea of how big the place really is. It's not all that impressive on a small monitor, but in real life, it's quite something.

This venue is actually two museums, one in Sinsheim and one in Speyer; I took a day in Sinsheim and a day in Speyer. Notwithstanding the submarines and Russian space shuttle(!) in the Speyer location, the Sinsheim incarnation wins hands down, at least for my interests. The Speyer location seemed to have a few hundred motorcycles, which I'm not into, but if that's your interest you will like it.

I've broken the tour up into several parts, this portion being the Third Reich armor / Panzer section. They have several WKII Panzerkampfwagen / WWII tanks, which was my primary reason for visiting (researching a book).

The museum's own website can be found at: www.technik-museum.de, but mine has a LOT more pictures...

Sinsheim isn't on the way to much of anywhere, but it is in the Rhein-Neckar region which has excellent rail connections. I stayed in Heidelberg which was situated almost equidistant between the two cities and offered relatively short (well under an hour) S-Bahn rides to both Sinsheim and Speyer. There is a dedicated stop for the museum in Sinsheim so you can get off practically at the front door. The S-Bahn to Speyer isn't as close; the main train station is about a 15-20 minutes walk from the museum, but you get to go through an attractive old center and walk past great gelato stands and the beautiful Speyer Dom / Cathedral.

Enjoy!